The Supreme Court held up the individual mandate of the ACA as a constitutionally valid exercise of Congress's taxing power. The "mandate" is not a requirement that you do anything. Stripped of labels, the only "mandate" is to pay your tax bill.

The briefs and oral arguments before the Supreme Court regarding the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act would have benefited from close attention to two opinions by Chief Justice John Marshall, which are referred to only in snippets.

Lost in the arguments of conservatives and right-wing activists was the fact that the individual mandate -- the essential element that would bring tyranny to our homes -- was initially raised as the preferred strategy for health care reform by the right.